Robert Whittaker has been on the receiving end of a Khamzat Chimaev beatdown, and he likes the middleweight champion’s chances of doing the same to Sean Strickland this Saturday at UFC 328.
Chimaev and Strickland face off in Saturday’s main event at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., with Chimaev looking to stay undefeated, and Strickland seeking an upset to become a two-time UFC titleholder. So far, Chimaev has beaten each one of his UFC opponents, including Whittaker, utilizing a mixture of elite wrestling, raw power, and top-shelf athleticism to come out on top.
In an interview for Paramount, Whittaker assessed Chimaev’s chances of becoming an all-time great and whether Strickland stands a chance against “The Chechen Wolf.”
“It depends,” Whittaker said. “I think the game is still trying to work out the puzzle that is that Russian, Chechnyan sort of wrestling style. I think I have an answer in my head, not that I can do it, but I think the guys that will start giving some trouble to those guys are the really high-level, like back sort of jiu-jitsu guys. But in saying that, we haven’t seen it yet. Much like Gilbert Burns and Chimaev, Chimaev wasn’t able to just hold him down because of Burns, how dangerous his offensive grappling is, so having guys that can work off their back really well and not get stuck while they’re there.
“So I don’t think the game has worked out the puzzle that is that and we’re kind of seeing—But then we say that and then, like Merab [Dvalishvili] before he lost to Petr [Yan], it’s the exact same question. How do you beat Merab? How do you stop that gas tank? And Petr did it to the highest extend. He ticked all the boxes and just went in there and did it. So I guess we’re kind of just waiting for the shoe to fall. We want to see if Strickland has what it takes. He talks a big game, he almost convinces me that he can do it, but having been in there with Chimaev and having seen what Chimaev can do once he gets his hands on you, and he will because he shoots from so far away and he commits wholeheartedly, he will get you to the mat. It’s what happens after. We’ve seen that he has the cardio to be able to do that for five rounds as well.
“Gun to my head, Chimaev’s going to run him over.”
Though Strickland is the clear underdog heading into UFC 328, the former middleweight champion has made a habit of playing the spoiler. He earned his UFC title with a shocking upset of Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 and recently knocked out Anthony Hernandez to snap Hernandez’s eight-fight win streak.
When Whittaker talks about Chimaev’s greatness, he does so from experience, having previously had his jaw dislocated by Chimaev at UFC 308. He doubts there’s anything a fighter can do in camp to prepare for the real thing when it’s time to step into the cage with Chimaev.
“The thing is you can prepare and expect for things as much as you want, but all the preparation we did and stuff, it didn’t—He was just better than the preparation,” Whittaker said. “His ability to stick to you, to control the positions, to adjust and move into another position once he’s got his hands on you was just next level. We also saw that with the Dricus [du Plessis] fight. Dricus is a hard guy to hold down, he’s a big, strong man, and the way he handled him and extended his cardio over five rounds and just kept efficiently making those adjustments so he didn’t gas himself early, the only shortcoming anyone could have said before that Dricus fight would have been his cardio. Investing so heavily into his wrestling in Round 1 and then slowing down in the later rounds.
“So for him to have closed that gap, to make those adjustments, we prepped as well as anybody else can, and I’m sure Dricus prepped as well as anybody else could, it’s just [Chimaev’s] level is to be respected. It is.”
For Strickland to have a chance, Whittaker would like to see the challenger focus on striking and preventing Chimaev from getting into grappling range as opposed to having to rely on his grappling defense to survive the fight. Because if the fight gets to that point, it might already be too late.
“Honestly, I think the jab is going to be an annoying obstacle for Chimaev to try and get in on,” Whittaker said. “But also the way Strickland raises his knee to throw those teeps and he raises that knee and then jabs you at the same time. So I think that that raising of his knee might be a deterrent for Chimaev shooting in freely. If Chimaev times it wrong, he’s going to go straight into a knee, no matter who you are that’s going to hurt. So I think those are the pieces.
“I don’t think the answer is going to be Strickland’s wrestling defense or jiu-jitsu. I don’t think that’s going to play a factor. I think Chimaev is just so solidly into that all-in-on-wrestling formula that’s worked for him since Day 1. You can’t catch up. I don’t think you can catch up, I think you can throw some obstacles and you can try to put some deterrents in there and you can try to work out the cardio levels and efficiency and energy levels of defending takedowns and forcing him back to his feet, etc. etc. But I don’t think that’s where the answer lies to beating Chimaev. I think you need to try and create obstacles for him to be reluctant to try and go into where he’s strongest.”
Roundtable. Just how ugly is this Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland feud?
Brawl. Pitbull Brothers claim Karate Combat is up to some promotional weirdness.
Confusion. Sean Brady explains how Michael Morales fight almost fell through.
Option B. Sean O’Malley wanted to fight Petr Yan, not Aiemann Zahabi at the White House.
Plans. Dana White thinks fans watching UFC White House at the nearby Ellipse will still be thrilled.
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck chats with Sean Brady ahead of UFC 328.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
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The UFC White House merch train is rolling and you can now purchase a UFC Freedom 250-branded hockey jersey for the low, low price of $120 USD (h/t Jed I. Goodman).
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Thoughts? Too much? Not enough???
Only positive thoughts here, people, we’ve got a compelling main and co-main event Saturday night so let’s hope all four title fight competitors make it to fight night without issue.
(I’m looking at you, Chimaev!)
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